Dr. King Speaks to us

Dr. King speaks to us
by Bill Curtis

Thirty-seven years ago on April 4, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, TN, giving support to striking sanitation workers. What would he say today?

Looking at the Black Church, he said, “Two types of Negro churches have failed to provide bread. One burns with emotionalism, and the other freezes with classism. The former, reducing worship to entertainment, places more emphasis on volume than on content and confuses spirituality with muscularity. The danger in such a church is that the members may have more religion in their hands and feet than in their hearts and souls. At midnight this type of church has neither the vitality nor the relevant gospel to feed hungry souls. The other type of Negro church that feeds no midnight traveler has developed a class system and boasts of its dignity, its membership of professional people, and its exclusiveness.” (from The Strength To Love)

Seeing non-Blacks running most businesses in the neighborhoods, he said, “Black Power is also a call for the pooling of black financial resources to achieve economic security. While the ultimate answer to the Negroes economic dilemma will be found in a massive federal program for all the poor along the lines of A Phillip Randolph’s Freedom Budget, a kind of Marshall Plan for the disadvantaged, there is something that the Negro himself can do to throw off the shackles of poverty. (from Where Do We Go From Here)

Looking at President Bush, he said, “Our priorities are mixed up, our national purposes are confused, our policies are confused, and the must somehow be a reordering of priorities, policies and purposes.” (Dr. King at the 68th Annual Convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, March 25, 1968)

He continued. “We feel that there must be some structural changes now, there must be a radical re-ordering of priorities, there must be a de-escalation and a final stopping of the war in Vietnam and an escalation of the war against poverty and racism here at home.”

Reflecting on authentic justice, Dr. King said, “Justice for black people will not flow into society merely from court decisions nor from fountains of political oratory. Nor will a few token changes quell all the tempestuous yearning of millions of disadvantaged black people. White America must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society. The comfortable, the entrenched, the privileged cannot continue to tremble at the prospect of change in the status quo.” (from Testament of Hope)

As he ascended from the mist of April 4, 1968 Memphis, TN, Dr. King said, “I want to say one other challenge that we face is simply that we must find an alternative to war and blood shed. Anyone who feels, and there are still a lot of people who feel that way, that war can solve the social problems facing mankind is sleeping through a revolution. President Kennedy said on one occasion, “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” The world must hear this. I pray God that America will hear this before it is too late because today we’re fighting a war.” (Dr. King’s last Sunday morning sermon, March 31, 1968, National Cathedral (Episcopal), Washington, DC)

Bill Curtis
email: blog@BillCurtisInfo.com

www.NoBoxWeb.com

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